Reminding You To Breathe
by butimbroken
Summary: Buffy/Angel. Just a short little story about two neighbors. AU. COMPLETE.


**Doot Doot Doot. They're Still Not Mine. Thanks Jessie!**

_In The Shadows Where Their Heads Hang Low_  
_You Hear Voices As The Wind Blows_  
_Asking Can't You See_  
**_Reminding You To Breathe_**  
_It's Only Time Before It Catches Up_  
_To You And All Your Broken Luck_

**Song Will Be Linked With The Rest On The Playlist On My Profile Page.**

**I Know I Have A Lot Of Unfinished Stories In Serious Need Of An Update, And Will Get To Them, I Promise, I'm Just Trying To Write Out A Few Quick Stories To Get Back Into The Groove Of Things. Not Very Interesting But Again, Just Trying To Get Out A Few Quick Ideas.**

"Buffy?"

At the sound of her name being called out, Buffy rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Yes, Mother?"

"Was that the mailman I just heard?"

Buffy sighed as she got up to go look out the window, she really hadn't been paying attention to anything, making it over just in time to see the distinctive little thing driving off down the road, about to turn the corner and out of sight. "Yeah, looks like it."

"Could you go see if we got anything in today, please? That letter from your father should be arriving today, and I am also expecting an important letter from..."

"Yeah, whatever," she mumbled outloud, already heading toward the door and zoning the sound of her mother's voice out. Stepping outside, a gust of wind hit her, making her wish she'd brung a jacket, even for the short walk to the end of the drive and back. Buffy's eyes darted to the house one over from the old man across the street as she made her way down the steps and on down the drive, trying to control her hair as it flew a thousand different directions with the breeze. She noted the drive was still bare meaning the owner still wasn't home. There was a garage, but she had only ever seen him use it once or twice when the weather had been really bad, so it was a pretty dead giveaway. As she reached the mailbox, she sighed, opening it up and taking the contents out, grumbling at the massive pile. Closing it back up, Buffy gave one last hopeless look over her shoulder at the empty house, then slowly made her way back up to the house.

"Was there anything out there?" She heard ring out before the door had even had a chance to close behind her.

"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled, too quiet for her mother to hear, heading toward the kitchen where she found her mother working on their dinner for the evening. They exchanged a smile as Buffy entered, holding up the envelopes and magazines and such in her hands. Joyce nodded at the counter and Buffy sat down, her hands going to her hair to try and finger comb out the damage being outside had done as she started filtering through the junk.

Passing over a set of coupons from Taco Bell, Buffy heard her stomach growl. She smirked, "Don't supposed you'd like to scrap all of this and make some tacos, huh?"

Joyce turned around and gave her a pointed look making Buffy laugh.

"Didn't think so. Oh, here," she lifted an envelope up into the air, "Think this might be what you were babbling on about," she said, letting Joyce take it from her. Humming she continued, pausing at the one from her dad. She really didn't feel like dealing with that at the moment, she knew that for sure, so she just sat it to the side and finished up. Sliding the small pile of bills to the side, Buffy examined the two left over, one for herself, one for someone she'd never heard of. "Hey Mom, you happen to know anybody named Liam Angelus by any chance?"

"Hmm?"

She held up the letter, "This is for someone named Liam Angelus."

"No... I don't believe..." Joyce trailed off for a moment, then smiled and shook her head, "Of course, that's the boy from across the street I believe. His must have gotten slipped in with ours. Would you mind taking it over to him real quick while I finish up?"

Buffy flipped the letter over, as if that was helping. "Who?" she asked, her eyebrows scrunched up together. She didn't like her neighbors to begin with, let alone ones she didn't know, so she was really not liking this idea one bit.

Joyce pointed over to the side, though from the kitchen it wasn't exactly the best way to give directions, thankfully, she hadn't left it at just that. "You know, that nice young man who lives over there, next to the doctor? He's a few years older than you at least..." she waved her arms around a bit, "brown hair, tall..."

Buffy's eyes went wide as she realized who was being described. "I can't do that!" she exclaimed. "And how do you even know his name?"

"Whenever he moved in I tried to be neighborly and go over there and introduce myself."

Buffy's eyes bugged out some more, not that anyone seemed to be paying any attention. "Well, just great!"

"So, can you go over there real quick?"

"No!"

Spinning around after hearing the tone in her daughter's voice, Joyce gave her an odd look. "Why not?'

"Because!"

Joyce continued to just stare at her oddly.

"He's not even home." Before the words had even left her mouth, Buffy was smiling. "He's not even home," she repeated with a laugh. "I'll just... go stick it in his mail box real quick, he won't even know."

The two of them held their stares for a long pause, Joyce still unsure what on earth was going on, but finally she shrugged. "Okay then."

Buffy smiled nervously before jumping down for her seat. "Be back in a second."

"Hey, did you get anything from your father?"

"Yeah, but I haven't opened it yet," she called behind her.

"Why not?"

"Don't worry about it!" she said before stepping back outside, just in time to see the front of a certain black car coming her way. "Shit!" She hissed, flinging the door back open.

"Buffy?"

"Huh?"

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing!"

"I think that's his car just pulling in, why aren't you..."

"Ugh! Was just grabbing my coat. Thanks..." she growled, doing just that, trying not to let the butterflies in her stomach cause a complete panic. Slipping her jacket on quickly, Buffy took a deep breath, and stepped back outside, watching as the car came to a stop. "Shit," she hissed, moving forward somehow.

As he got out of the car, Buffy felt her heart hammering against her chest. She had never been this close to him, certainly hadn't ever spoken to him or interacted with him in any way what so ever, and was nowhere near prepared for it, even if it was something she found herself fantasizing about daily.

"Um, hi, Mister Angelus?" she called out, her voice shaky.

"Huh?" he muttered, not having been paying any attention to anything going on around him "it's Angel," he said automatically before turning around. "Oh." Was all he could say once he realized who his guest was.

"Excuse me?"

He blanked for several seconds before attempting to smile. "Everybody calls me Angel," he explained.

"Oh. Okay, well um..." she reached her hand out, white envelope in tow, "this was accidentally put in our box."

He cocked his head to the side for a moment, then emptied the bags he'd been holding into the front area of his house before taking it from her. "Sorry about that."

She laughed at this, "I don't think it's so much your fault."

He smirked, "Cute," he said, causing her to blush. "Well, thanks."

She shrugged. "Not a problem. Well, uh... see ya," she said before turning to leave, an impossibly huge smile taking over her face.

She had made it two steps before she heard his voice again. "You're not going to tell me your name?"

Buffy paused at the sound, but made it to the end of the drive before she spun around to face him, having done her best to use that time to calm her self back down. Best she could anyway. "Nope," she teased, making him laugh this time. She shot him her best smile before turning around once again, continuing back toward her house.

"That's cold..." there was a beat... "Summers, that's cold!" he called out.

Buffy laughed, threw a wave over her shoulder, but didn't turn around until she got inside. Pressing her hand to her heart, her back to the door, she turned her head just so that she could look out the small window. He was still there, leaning against the column of his porch, his arms now folded over his chest, his eyes meeting hers, even at this distance. He smiled then and gave her a wink before laughing and going inside himself.


End file.
